Hi Peggy - I'm late responding. I'm so sorry to read about your recent hospital stay.
George mentions the beet juice and improvement in elderly with heart failure. Beet juice is a good source of nitric oxide (chemical symbol NO) which helps significantly with heart failure and other related symptoms. Actually, using the supplements.. either L-arginine or L-citrulline have been used for that purpose as outlined in the book written by the pharmacologist who, with two other researchers, won the Nobel Prize in 1998 for work on nitric oxide and heart health.
Book:
NO More Heart Disease: How Nitric Oxide Can Prevent--Even Reverse--Heart Disease and Strokes You can go to this link on Amazon and use the Look Inside feature to read quite a bit. There is also an abundance of info online if you Google, his name and nitric oxide.
Start here:
Recap: Why Nitric Oxide Is a Crucially Important Molecule in the Cardiovascular System
[
www.drignarro.com]
The NO science has advanced so rapidly that the latest Louis Ignarro book,
The New Heart Health (2013) seems important to read as well. Co-authored by Naturopathic physician, Dr. Andrew Myers, which is a great combination.
Also has the Look Inside feature. [
www.amazon.com]
The book,
The Nitric Oxide (NO) Solution by Nathan S. Bryan, PhD and Janet Jand, OMD... that continues the NO story about heart benefits.
While I don't have high blood pressure, I've been using the NO protocol (arginine) for almost 2 years and last year switched to using L-citrulline based on all the science provided by the nitric oxide research and increasing popularity.
Here's a clip:
Citrulline and arginine scientific studies
In the first study to show that oral supplementation with citrulline raises blood levels of arginine, 20 healthy volunteers were given 6 different dosing regimens of placebo, citrulline, and arginine.
After one week of oral supplementation, the citrulline dose increased plasma arginine concentration more effectively than arginine alone.8
A study in humans also showed the citrulline supplementation’s “time release” effect on arginine production. In this study an oral dose of 3.8 grams of citrulline resulted in a 227% peak increase in plasma arginine levels after 4 hours, compared with a 90% peak increase with the same dose of arginine.7,9
Thus, acute oral administration of citrulline appears to be considerably more efficient at raising plasma levels of arginine over the long term than arginine itself.7
Reduces blood pressure
In another recent study, citrulline supplementation was shown to reduce blood pressure in 17 young (average age 21.6 years) men with normal blood pressure after they were submitted to a cold pressor test (CPT). (A cold pressor test is a cardiovascular test done by having the subject immerse his hand into a bucket of ice water for one minute. Blood pressure and heart rate are then evaluated.)
Even more importantly, new studies are showing that supplemental citrulline also assists in nitric oxide production by boosting blood levels of arginine.
The men were randomly assigned to four weeks of oral citrulline (6 grams/day) or placebo in a crossover design. Blood pressure was measured after the blood pressor test. The results showed that compared to placebo, oral citrulline decreased brachial systolic blood pressure (-6 +/- 11 mm Hg), aortic systolic blood pressure (-4 +/- 10 mm Hg), and aortic pulse pressure (-3 +/- 6 mm Hg) during CPT but not at rest, suggesting improved production of
nitric oxide under stress.10 [
www.smart-publications.com]
You can also check some of the links related to this Google search on NO therapy and the name, Professor Dan Hammer, who has his easy-to-follow NO protocols.
Eliminating Heart Disease Naturally Thru Nitric Oxide Therapy [
www.google.com] His website gives a good recap of the NO story and successes. and also this link: [
danhammerhealth.com] for the high blood pressure protocol. [
www.seas.upenn.edu]
Conference Room 49 discussed arginine in 2006 as well.
Hope this isn't overwhelming, but it's so important, I wanted to share some of the highlights from my resources with you.
Let me know if I can help you find or research specifics, Peggy, and I certainly wish you success in turning this around.
Best to you,
Jackie